Age of Wisdom

I received one only this morning from a well-known organisation concerned with age; save yourself money and your loved ones worry and expense. They haven't stopped in the past year and a half; junk letters advertising life insurance policies, funeral expense plans, catalogues filled with 'age' aids like Stannah stair lifts, thermal underwear, incontinence gear, special shoes and walking sticks, and every bathroom aid imaginable for pulling onself in and out of bath and shower, on and off loo, and so on. My crime? A year and a half ago, I had the temerity to turn fifty - yes! Fifty, that grand old age that brings with it diminishing responsibility, decay and decreptitude...hang on! I'm still working my way through the works of Shakespeare. And after that, there is Webster, and Milton, and Camus, and...have these commercial chuggers never heard that the half-century is the dawning of the age of wisdom in man (and woman!), that the advancing years bring increased knowledge in life, deepening understanding, broadening philosophy? Instead of these eetie-tweetie, icky-ticky pastel-covered brochures with their patronising depiction of smiling, silver-haired models enjoying their twilight years, would someone kindly acknowledge my intellectual maturity and send me instead, books by ancients like Plato, Aristotle, Scorates....after all, soon I will be one of their number.